Salman Rushdie: Through a Glass Darkly; Dark Matter

“Salman Rushdie has been giving a lot of interviews recently to promote his new memoir, Knife. Chances are that you may have read one, so the question was: could Alan Yentob bring anything new to the party in Salman Rushdie: Through a Glass Darkly? In short, yes. This felt like the last word on the life-changing incident.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Given the dark material, it seems strange to say that I enjoyed this film but the reflections and biographical context were energised — jazzed up, even — by old footage, not only of Rushdie as a younger man but clips from everything from The Seventh Seal (the knight playing chess with Death) to Tex Avery to The Wind in the Willows (the joy of Mole returning to the mole hole or, rather, Rushdie returning home).”
James Jackson, The Times

“The author has written a memoir, Knife, about his 2022 ordeal, and spoke about it in a Telegraph interview. But to watch him discussing it in Salman Rushdie: Through a Glass Darkly is to truly understand how remarkably he is dealing with it. The BBC interview, with his old friend Alan Yentob, is a straight recollection of what happened.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The question Rushdie raises about why the book had to exist applies to this programme about the book… with not much emphasis given either to Rushdie’s history or his thoughts on freedom of expression or the modern dangers of being a controversial writer. Those things are discussed, but not to the extent that we hear about Rushdie’s medical treatment. Through a Glass Darkly does feel superfluous in that sense.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“The script, adapted by novelist Blake Crouch from his own 2016 sci-fi thriller, offers much scope for visual spectacle. Whether Dark Matter absorbs as drama depends on how much anyone can take of Joel Edgerton. With a smudgy sort of straight face, he’s good at veering from vaguely hunky everyman to conscienceless brainiac.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“Crouch has made a few improvements to character arcs and closed a few loopholes from his page-turner of a book, but he has also stretched a propulsive plot that kept the physics accessible to more than nine hours that make you feel every minute. There is a lot of wheelspinning and longueurs that make you wish it was either a six-parter or perhaps a really good, tight four.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian